2024 LIV Golf Hong Kong prize money payouts for each player and team

It pays to play well in the Saudi-backed league.

It pays to play well in the LIV Golf League, just ask Abraham Ancer.

The 33-year-old won for the first time on the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit after a three-way playoff on Sunday to claim 2024 LIV Golf Hong Kong at Hong Kong Golf Club’s Fanling Course.

For his efforts, Ancer will take home the top prize of $4 million. Paul Casey and Cameron Smith each earned $1.875 million for their runner-up finishes. Joaquin Niemann and Carlos Ortiz round out the top five at T-4 and banked $900,000.

Check out how much money each player and team earned at 2024 LIV Golf Hong Kong.

MORE: Best shots from LIV Golf Hong Kong

Individual prize money

Position Player Score Earnings
1  Abraham Ancer -13 $4,000,000
2  Paul Casey -13 $1,875,000
2  Cameron Smith -13 $1,875,000
T4  Joaquin Niemann -12 $900,000
T4  Carlos Ortiz -12 $900,000
T6  Kevin Na -11 $650,000
T6  Bryson DeChambeau -11 $650,000
T8  Richard Bland -10 $396,071
T8  Graeme McDowell -10 $396,071
T8  Charles Howell III -10 $396,071
T8  Ian Poulter -10 $396,071
T8  Dean Burmester -10 $396,071
T8  Jon Rahm -10 $396,071
T8  Henrik Stenson -10 $396,071
T15  Lucas Herbert -9 $278,750
T15  Adrian Meronk -9 $278,750
T15  Harold Varner III -9 $278,750
T15  Eugenio Chacarra -9 $278,750
T19  Sam Horsfield -8 $245,000
T19  Louis Oosthuizen -8 $245,000
T21  Dustin Johnson -7 $204,286
T21  Talor Gooch -7 $204,286
T21  Martin Kaymer -7 $204,286
T21  Scott Vincent -7 $204,286
T21  Tyrrell Hatton -7 $204,286
T21  Sebastián Muñoz -7 $204,286
T21  Matt Jones -7 $204,286
28  Brooks Koepka -6 $180,000
T29  Peter Uihlein -5 $165,000
T29  Marc Leishman -5 $165,000
T29  Patrick Reed -5 $165,000
T29  Andy Ogletree -5 $165,000
T29  Bubba Watson -5 $165,000
T34  Brendan Steele -4 $146,250
T34  David Puig -4 $146,250
T34  Cameron Tringale -4 $146,250
T34  Anirban Lahiri -4 $146,250
T38  Caleb Surratt -3 $137,500
T38  Sergio Garcia -3 $137,500
T38  Pat Perez -3 $137,500
T41  Charl Schwartzel -2 $129,375
T41  Danny Lee -2 $129,375
T41  Jinichiro Kozuma -2 $129,375
T41  Kalle Samooja -2 $129,375
T45  Lee Westwood -1 $124,167
T45  Matthew Wolff -1 $124,167
T45  Branden Grace -1 $124,167
T48  Mito Pereira E $90,000
T48  Thomas Pieters E $90,000
50  Anthony Kim 3 $60,000
51  Jason Kokrak 6 $60,000
T52  Hudson Swafford 8 $50,000
T52  Phil Mickelson 8 $50,000
54  Kieran Vincent 9 $50,000

Team prize money

Position Team Score Earnings
1 Crushers GC -35 $3,000,000
2 Torque GC -33 $1,500,000
3 Ripper GC -23 $500,000

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Abraham Ancer wins three-way playoff at 2024 LIV Golf Hong Kong; Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers claim another team title

Anthony Kim shot one of the low scores of the day on Sunday for his first round under par with LIV.

Abraham Ancer loves a playoff.

His lone win on the PGA Tour went to extra holes and the same can be said of his first LIV Golf victory. Ancer defeated Cameron Smith and Paul Casey with a birdie on the first playoff hole to win 2024 LIV Golf Hong Kong on Sunday.

After rounds of 7-under 63 and 8-under 62 on Friday and Saturday at Hong Kong Golf Club’s Fanling Course in Sheung Shui, Ancer struggled on Sunday to a 2-over 72, which opened the door for Casey (64) and Smith (66) to tie him atop the leaderboard at 13 under. Joaquin Niemann shot the low-round of the day, a 7-under 63 to finish T-4 alongside Carlos Ortiz (66), one shot outside of the playoff.

“Man, I made that so hard on myself. The ball-striking wasn’t there, but mentally I was really strong, so I felt really good. I felt like I was not going to give up. That round could have gone south really quickly,” Ancer explained. “Hit some good bunker shots, some good putts that I needed to and just kept myself in it and hit the right shot at the right time there in the playoff.”

MORE: Best shots from LIV Golf Hong Kong

On the team side, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC won for the second consecutive week after another strong Sunday to finish at 35 under, two shots clear of Niemann’s Torque GC. Smith and his Ripper GC earned their first top-three finish of the season at 32 under.

“I love these guys. They fight for every shot, and I can tell you when four scores are counting, we’re a pretty deadly team,” said DeChambeau. Before this season LIV switched its format to make all four player scores count to the team score in the final round. The worst score is dropped in the first two rounds.

“We know with four scores counting, we’re going to be in it no matter what the last day,” he added. “We put the pedal to the metal today and showcased who we are.”

Last year’s team champions, the Crushers have finished 2-4-1-1 in LIV’s four events so far this season. After winning the season opener, Jon Rahm’s new squad, Legion XIII, finsihed T-5 and fifth the last two events before coming in dead last this week in Hong Kong.

Anthony Kim has struggled in his return to pro golf with LIV, but after shooting over par in his first five rounds, the 38-year-old finally found the red numbers with a 5-under 65 on Sunday. Kim made seven birdies and two bogeys and finished 50th in his second event.

LIV is off for the rest of the month and returns to Trump National Doral, April 5-7, for 2024 LIV Golf Miami.

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LIV Golf’s biggest hitters describe the unique test that is the 6,700-yard Hong Kong Golf Club

“It’s a golf course where you hit all your clubs in your bag, and there’s a lot of different ways to play every hole.”

This week’s LIV Golf stop is unique on a few different levels.

As the league makes its first-ever trip to Hong Kong, its players will be teeing it up at Hong Kong Golf Club, a par-70 track that measures to just 6,710 yards. It’s one of two courses that LIV will visit this season that plays less than 7,000 yards in addition to Real Club Valderrama in Spain, where the league will be July 12-14. It’s rare for the pros to play such a short course. For comparison, TPC River Highlands will be the shortest course on the 2024 PGA Tour schedule and played at 6,852 yards for the 2023 Travelers Championship.

“Realistically like in competition? Probably never,” said Bryson DeChambeau of the last time he played a course this short. “In tournament competition, it’s definitely a unique test. There’s a lot of shot shaping you’ve got to have out here, and your iron play has to be on point.”

But don’t get it twisted, just because the holes aren’t as long as usual, some of the league’s biggest hitters are still planning on using driver.

“What’s funny is I can use a driver a couple times out here, actually,” added DeChambeau. “No. 9, 3, 1 if it’s into the wind. There’s a few places where I can actually use it, surprisingly.”

“It kind of all depends on the wind, but I hit quite a few drivers,” echoed Dustin Johnson. “I think it’s a golf course where you hit all your clubs in your bag, and there’s a lot of different ways to play every hole. If you want to hit a lot of drivers you can or you can lay back. It kind of just depends. Like I said, just depending on the wind really.”

A handful of players have history at Hong Kong Golf Club seeing as it has hosted the Asian Tour’s Hong Kong Open since 1959 and will do so once again this year, Nov. 21-24. Cameron Smith was runner-up in 2023, reserve player Wade Ormsby is a two-time winner in 2017 and 2020 and Ian Poulter won way back in 2010.

“I love how this golf course plays. It is really a smart person’s golf course,” said Smith. “It’s a golf course, although it presents a lot of opportunities, you have to be really patient around here, particularly if you’re off the fairway. It can bite you in the bum pretty quick around here, and just need to be smart.”

“The thing is it plays longer than this just because on a lot of tee shots you’re simply not allowed to be hitting drivers, so you’re playing it to a spot. It plays a little bit longer,” explained Jon Rahm. “You have the option of hitting driver if you want, but you’re going to have to be extremely accurate.

“But I’m in the belief that as a player, you have to adjust to the golf course and adjust to the conditions and shoot low, and whoever does that obviously the best is going to succeed. If anything, this type of golf is some of my favorite.”

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Jon Rahm takes shot at Official World Golf Ranking after LIV Golf pulled points application

Players continue to fail to address the OWGR’s main reason for not granting LIV points in the first place.

Jon Rahm didn’t know LIV Golf was still trying to earn Official World Golf Ranking points before the league withdrew its application on Tuesday, but that didn’t stop the Spaniard from once again calling out the ranking system.

In fact, the two-time major champion doubled down on his previous criticism of the OWGR ahead of this week’s LIV event in Hong Kong.

“I didn’t think it was a good system back then, and if anything, the more time that goes on, the more it proves to be wrong,” said Rahm. “If anybody in this world, for example, doesn’t think (Joaquin Niemann) deserves to be in the top 10 or doesn’t know that he’s a top player in the world, I don’t know what game you’re watching. We can tell. I think anybody who watches golf can tell who the best players in the world are, and obviously I don’t think the ranking is reflective of that right now to its entirety.”

LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman informed players of the decision to withdraw the points application via a letter on Tuesday. The original application was sent in July of 2022 and the OWGR initially denied points last October.

“We have made significant efforts to fight for you and ensure your accomplishments are recognized within the existing ranking system,” Norman wrote. “Unfortunately, OWGR has shown little willingness to productively work with us.”

When it denied LIV points, the OWGR claimed the league – which features a mostly-closed field of 54 players playing 54-hole, shotgun start, no-cut events – wasn’t able to be compared to the other 24 tours under its world ranking wing. Also stated to be of concern were the qualifying and relegation methods employed by LIV Golf.

“We are not at war with them,” Peter Dawson, chairman of the OWGR board, said to the AP. “This decision not to make them eligible is not political. It is entirely technical. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked. They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players trying to compete on them.”

LIV Golf was displeased, to say the least, with the OWGR news and released a lengthy statement condemning the ranking system by saying it had lost trust and clarity by not rewarding LIV player performances. The statement, however, failed to address the reasons given in the original AP report as to why the application for world ranking points was rejected. Bryson DeChambeau did the same on Wednesday.

He said if the OWGR wanted to right the system then LIV should’ve been granted points more than a year ago when they partnered with the developmental MENA Tour, which also features 54-hole events.

“The cut thing — there’s numerous things they brought up, and it’s like, we can solve for all that, just tell us what to do, and nothing has gone — anyway, it is what it is, and at this point we just need to figure out how to get all the governing bodies to come together and figure out what the best system is for the game of professional golf moving forward,” said DeChambeau, who failed to mention the closed shop or pathways to the league.

“I just think what’s right is in the best interest of the game, and we should focus on having the best players at the majors, and continuing to have that around the game of golf is only important to growing the game of golf and to make the game of golf continue to be as relevant as it is now and even more in the future,” said DeChambeau. “What I think about it is we need to find a collective way, all the governing bodies, everybody, come together, sit down and figure this out, because we need to do this for the fans.”

The one point we can all agree on is that the major championships are better when all the best players are competing. No player or fan would say otherwise. As LIV players drop in the OWGR and past champions lose their exemption status, the responsibility will fall on events like the Masters and PGA Championship to reward players like Joaquin Niemann, who have gone out of their way to try to qualify.

“But our job shouldn’t be to make the rules or impose the rules or enforce the rules,” Rahm added. “We’re here to entertain, and it’s the governing bodies’ job to be doing this and be adaptable to the changing environment.”

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Masters-bound Joaquin Niemann continues impressive run of form with 2024 LIV Golf Jeddah win

Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC claimed their second team title of the new season.

Joaquin Niemann is shaping up to have a big year in 2024.

The 25-year-old Chilean won the Australian Open back in December and carried that momentum into the new year with another win at LIV Golf’s season-opener in Mayakoba, where he began the week with a 59 and ended it with a playoff against Sergio Garcia.

Niemann didn’t need extra holes this week and stayed hot in Saudi Arabia with his second win of the year at LIV Golf Jeddah on Sunday. The Torque GC captain shot a final-round 4-under 66 to finish at 17 under at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, four shots clear of Stinger GC teammates Louis Oosthuizen (67) and Charl Schwartzel (68) at 13 under. Bryson DeChambeau had the low round of the day, a bogey-free 8-under 62 to finish fourth at 12 under. Jon Rahm signed for a 2-under 68 on Sunday to round out the top five at 11 under.

Anthony Kim made his highly-anticipated return to professional golf and finished dead last in 53rd (Matthew Wolff withdrew in the second round). The 38-year-old shot rounds of 76-76-74 to finish 16 over, 11 shots behind 52nd-place Hudson Swafford and 33 behind the winner Niemann.

MORE: Best shots from LIV Golf Jeddah

“Yeah, it feels amazing. It’s a super special moment. It’s always nice when you win. I’m just more happy, I’m more proud the way I’m playing right now, and the way I played out there today,” said Niemann. “It was a tough day. It was windy. I knew there was going to be some low scores, so I’m super happy. I’m proud the way I’m playing. I just want to — on to the next one.”

DeChambeau’s Crushers GC blitzed the field in the final round to claim the team title at 38 under, four shots clear of runner-up Stinger GC and five clear of third-place Smash GC, captained by Brooks Koepka.

The league is back in action next week with LIV Golf Hong Kong, March 8-10, at Hong Kong Golf Club in Sheung Shui.

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Swing instructor predicts more majors in Bryson DeChambeau’s future – including this year – and the story of his Krank driver

Why is Schy so sure that DeChambeau is on the verge of taking his game to another level this year?

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Mike Schy has never been – well, shy – in predicting big things for Bryson DeChambeau.

The 2020 U.S. Open champion was Schy’s prized student, who won the NCAA men’s golf title and U.S. Amateur under his watchful eye at his performance institute – “we’re on our third tent,” he once told me – at Dragonfly Golf Club (formerly Riverbend Country Club) in Madera, California.

But the two took a break much like Ross and Rachel in the TV show “Friends,” during which DeChambeau bulked up and reached new heights with Chris Como. But last year, Schy and DeChambeau reunited, although as Schy explains, “he’ll never admit it,” and to that extent DeChambeau also counts on Dana Dahlquist for swing help.

Speaking at the PGA Merchandise Show’s Demo Day at Orange County National Golf Club, Schy is borderline giddy when the topic of DeChambeau’s prospects for 2024 are raised. Schy tired of Tour life and traveling as part of DeChambeau’s entourage early in his pro career, but he says, “I want to be at a major this year, maybe the Masters, because he’s going to win a major this year. He’s going to win more than one more major, I’m just not calling multiples this year.”

Why is Schy so sure that DeChambeau is on the verge of taking his game to another level this year? To explain, he circles back to October when he went to Miami to see DeChambeau, who defected to LIV in June 2022, play. Schy was curious to see what a LIV event looked like and he got a lot more than he anticipated.

“So, I’m out there at the pro-am on Thursday, and he’s not hitting it well. His driver flattened a bit in Saudi Arabia and he was hooking it again. He got that figured out but he’s clearly not happy with the way he’s hitting it. You know how he gets,” Schy says. “I don’t say anything unless he asks. He called Dana (Dahlquist) at one point and hung up on him. He called me over from 60 yards away and said, ‘Mike, why am I hitting it bad?’ I said, ‘Well…’ I determined his ball position was too far back. He said, ‘You think it’s that simple?’ I said, ‘All day you’ve been saying it should be simple. What’s simpler than changing ball position?’ This is right after he hit it fat in the water. He hits a couple and it’s better. He says, ‘It feels like I have more turn.’”

One day later, Schy continues, he’s in the lockerroom conversing with DeChambeau about his old swing and DeChambeau commented that what he used to do was wrong.

2016 RBC Heritage
Bryson DeChambeau talks with swing coach Mike Schy ahead of the third round of the 2016 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. (Photo: Tyler Lecka/Getty Images)

“That really bugged me. I didn’t sleep that night. I even texted him some stuff that Homer (Kelley, famous for The Golf Machine) had said about ball position,” Schy recalls. “I walked into the locker room and it’s just him and I, and I said, ‘You know, dude, you were the consummate hitter. Now you’ve worked on this long drive thing and your right arm has moved into the front. You’ve gone from more of a hitting motion to more of a swinging motion. You can’t have the ball back in your stance in a swinging motion. Of course, he says, ‘I’ll have to think about that.’ ”

Schy notes that DeChambeau played well in Miami as DeChambeau’s Crushers won the Team Championship. A couple weeks later, DeChambeau gets back to Schy and tells him, “I figured it out. It’s all geometry.”

“I was laughing so hard,” Schy said. “He’s got to figure it out on his own. He can never give me any credit. I knew one thing, he’s always hated the ball forward. He’s always defaulted to moving it back.”

Schy’s story gives a window into the mind of DeChambeau but he’s just getting to why he’s predicting more majors in the future for DeChambeau. To do so, he backtracks to July.

“Do you know what bulge and roll are?” Schy asks. When I nod along, he purses his lips and says, “Sure, you do,” and then proceeds to give a lesson on how bulge is the curvature of the face from its heel to its toe, while roll is the curvature of the face from the crown to the sole. Schy continues pontificating for some time but as the announcers sometimes say, we’ll skip ahead in the action. On Friday night after making the cut at the British Open at Liverpool in July, DeChambeau phoned Schy and asked, “What do you think about bulge and roll?”

DeChambeau’s search for the perfect driver eventually aggravated his equipment sponsor Cobra — “he’s looking for a magic bullet,” Cobra’s Ben Schomin said a year ago — to the point that they parted ways with him. Being an equipment free agent freed up DeChambeau to go down more rabbit holes. The problem with his quest, as former long-drive champion Jason Zuback once said is, “the faster you move it, the more precise you need to be.”

Schy knew from experience that DeChambeau wouldn’t quit searching and he had his latest theory he wanted to test out.

“Bryson always wants to go to the super extreme and work his way back,” Schy says.

He told DeChambeau that Crank Golf, which specializes in drivers for long drive, had a model, the Formula Fire, with nine inches of bulge. DeChambeau said that wasn’t enough.

“I told him, that’s more than what you’re playing now,” Schy recalls.

Schy emailed Lance Reader at Crank at 6 a.m. that morning. Soon they were doing a group call with DeChambeau in England. “What do you have?” DeChambeau asked. “Well, what do you want?” Reader responded.

Crank sent DeChambeau a driver with 8 ½ inches of roll and bulge. A few days later he tested the club and it reduced the amount of curve on the ball. DeChambeau phoned Schy as if he’d just found the cure for cancer and said, “It’s not my swing, I knew it wasn’t my swing.”

The next day, he sent a file of TrackMan data to Schy and didn’t wait long before he phoned him to break it down. “Do you see it?” DeChambeau asked. “I reduced curve by 50 percent.” He added, “This is it.”

Ten days later in early August, DeChambeau shot 61-58 at The Greenbrier, making birdie at the final four holes to become the fourth player to shoot 58 in pro golf. DeChambeau bragged that his driver was a difference maker.

“It’s probably performed the best I’ve ever had in the past five years in professional golf for me, ever since 2018 when I was striping it early in the year,” he told the media.

Just a few weeks after Schy predicted bigger things ahead for DeChambeau, he flirted with the 50s again, settling for 62 at LIV Las Vegas. He closed in 74 on Saturday to drop to T-9, but Schy’s point is clear: armed with a driver he believes in, DeChambeau is primed to do damage and it’s why Schy is looking at airline reservations to Augusta.

After all, it’s all geometry.

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Golfers who have broken 60 in the history of pro golf

It’s one of the hardest things to achieve in the game.

The first one came in 1977.

It was another 14 years before someone did it again.

It was then eight years after that before it happened a third time.

Breaking 60 has always held mythical status in golf.

Al Geiberger (1977), Chip Beck (1991) and David Duval (1999) were the first three to pull it off.

Since 2010, there have been eight more PGA Tour golfers who shot a 59, including Jim Furyk, who also shot a record-setting 58 from in 2016. He remains the only golfer to shoot a 58 on Tour and he’s the only golfer to break 60 twice.

Bryson DeChambeau joined the 58 Club after his 12-under round in a LIV Golf event.

Scottie Scheffler is the latest to break 60 on the PGA Tour, shooting a 59 in the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust. It’s the 12th time that a Tour golfer broke 60.

On the LPGA, there has only been one 59. It came in 2001 and was accomplished by Annika Sorenstam.

Joaquinn Niemann’s 59 in the 2024 LIV opener made him the second on that circuit to do it.

And in 2024, a golfer on the Korn Ferry Tour became the first to shoot 57 in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

Here’s a closer look at the sub-60 rounds in pro golf.

‘Any investment into the game of golf is gigantic’: LIV Golf players react to $3 billion outside investment in PGA Tour

“What I can say is that any investment into the game of golf is gigantic, especially on their side,” said DeChambeau.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — The Strategic Sports Group’s $3 billion investment to partner with the PGA Tour to create a new for-profit entity was undoubtedly the golf news of the day.

Just seven months ago the Tour announced a framework agreement with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to create what we now know today as PGA Tour Enterprises. The Tour confirmed in a release on Wednesday that progress has been made in ongoing negotiations with the PIF on a potential future investment. That same release also stated that PGA Tour Enterprises allows for a co-investment from the PIF in the future, “subject to all necessary regulatory approvals.” In the original framework agreement, the PIF would’ve had the right of first refusal to any outside money if a deal was passed by the original deadline on Dec. 31, 2023 deadline.

A lot can change in seven months.

Given the PIF’s role as the financiers of LIV Golf, players were asked ahead of the 2024 season opener at Mayakoba’s El Camaleon Golf Course in Mexico about the new deal and their confidence level that the PIF would eventually join the PGA Tour Enterprises party, but even the always outspoken Bryson DeChambeau didn’t have much of any real substance to say.

“Look, I don’t know exactly how it’s all going to shake out, when it’s all said and done. I don’t know what it really means for the PIF’s position in it,” he said of the SSG investment. “What I can say is that any investment into the game of golf is gigantic, especially on their side.”

“You’re just going to see both entities continue to grow, and I hope at some point we’ll come back together. It needs to happen,” DeChambeau added. “I hope people can just put down their weapons and come to the table and figure it out because that’s what’s good for the game of golf and for fans in general. But like I said, any additional capital going into the game of golf is always positive. I’ve always said that.

“It may not be exactly what we all think it should be,” he continued, “but as time goes on, I think things will settle down in a positive way for both.”

“Yeah, that was really in the back of my mind, like really far back in my mind,” said LIV’s newest member Jon Rahm, who joked he was more worried about filling his roster for the 2024 season opener this week. “There’s a lot bigger people that are a lot smarter than me that are going to be worrying about that that actually have a say in it, and they should be thinking about it. I think we’re here to play golf, perform, and whatever comes, comes.”

DeChambeau is unsure whether the SSG news will push back or speed up the Tour’s discussions with the PIF, but did compliment Rory McIlroy for his recent comments on accepting the reality of Saudi Arabia’s investment in golf and that players who left for LIV shouldn’t be punished.

“I appreciate the sentiment that he is providing out to the public now. I think his words are from a much more neutral position as the likes of us over here at LIV have been since day one,” said DeChambeau, who was the last player to remove his name from the initial lawsuit against the PGA Tour. “I think it’s positive, what he’s saying now, and I appreciate that.”

“I’ve spoken to Rory a bit in the past week and back in December. That’s kind of along the lines of what he said to me. It’s not a surprise to hear him say that in the media,” added Tyrrell Hatton, who joined Rahm’s Legion XIII team. “Ultimately, I would like to still be able to play events on the other two tours. But we’ll see how all that works out.”

A three-time teammate of both McIlroy and Hatton in the Ryder Cup, Rahm echoed what Hatton had to say.

“I haven’t spoken to him a lot recently. But he might have had a change in thought process, as in maybe with some of the things he said in the past,” Rahm said. “I think he might be seeing that the landscape of golf is changing and at some point you need to evolve. So I think he might be seeing that, and everybody is entitled to their opinion, but it’s nice to have the support from a player the caliber of Rory, especially those Ryder Cup remarks he made early on. I think that’s an important statement for change to be said.”

While both sides of the professional golf aisle believe the game will be better when it’s united, they don’t seem to agree or even know how to get there. The SSG investment was a step forward for the Tour, and only time will tell if the PIF can get on equal footing.

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Updated how it started vs. how it’s going: What pro golfers said before joining LIV Golf — and after

Player opinions on the Saudi-backed league seem to have changed after they signed multi-million dollar deals.

It seems like it wasn’t so long ago that some of the world’s top golfers were denouncing the possibility of moving to a Saudi-backed circuit, especially after the comments made by Phil Mickelson that stirred controversy outside of the sports world.

But in fact, many of these conversations came as far back as 2022 (remember that year?) and while they haven’t aged well, they have certainly made for some interesting reading.

With a late 2023 defection of Jon Rahm from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, this seemed like a good time to play everyone’s favorite social media game, “How it started vs. how it’s going.”

Some have changed drastically on their stance. Others have remained consistent. Here’s a look at a few:

Fans, Donald Trump, the players and more winners and losers from LIV Golf’s second year

In 2023 the players and fans were both winners and losers.

Ask anyone who works for LIV Golf and they’ll tell you all eyes are on 2024 and beyond now that another season is in the books.

Following its inaugural eight-event series in 2022, this year marked the debut of the rebranded LIV Golf League, which saw the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund host 14 events around the world, from Mayakoba to Jeddah. The league didn’t quite dominate as much of the conversation in 2023 as it did last year, but still held down (and even expanded in some places) its footing in golf’s larger ecosystem.

As the league transitions into what could make for a busy offseason, let’s take a look back at the biggest winners and losers from LIV Golf’s second season.